Creating your own name for something

Subject: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 12:34 AM

The names for things put me to thinking.....dangerous that. If you could name something you use everyday what would you call it besides it's present common name. For example; I call my portable phone: My walkabout. Just curious........

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 02:49 AM

Tucker: I saw your posting about your phone in another thread and Ive already started to call my phone that! I love it!

This will take some thought. One of my cats usually gets called "hoodlum" instead of his real name. Our border collie whose real name is Merlee, really is a "merdog", but these are not what I think you're looking for. This will be a fun thread with this creative lot.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 03:28 AM

"Trex" is a popuar name for cats over here. It's actually a well-known proprietary brand of cooking fat ... work it out!

Steve

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 05:43 AM

I once had a cat named 'Atora' for the same reason.
Similarly, a friend had one called 'Ramekin', this being a small thing you put food in.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: bill\sables
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 07:11 AM

We have a dog called Emma but she sometimes gets called Emmaroyd when she is a pain in the a**e Cheers Bill

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Helen
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 07:30 AM

Tucker,

Ever since I read a funny/satiric book about non-sexist language I have referred to my Walkman (radio/cassette player) as a Walkperson. It gets a laugh almost every time I say it.

Helen

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: sharon
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 08:36 AM

My 5 year old granddaughter calls an umbrella an "Underbrella". Makes sense to me!

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Bert
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 08:44 AM

When my daughter was small she called a helicopter a heflopper, a much more descriptive word which is standard in our family now.

Bert.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Margo
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 09:44 AM

My husband and I call our kids grunkies. They're really cute but they can be so........grunky. Margie

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 10:16 AM

Oh, this is so much fun! I had a friend whose really young sister couldn't pronounce A&W, the drive in where we always went for root beer. She called it Ay (as in day) & dee ubbee yah.

We one had a cat I named chop suey, because that is what I threatened to make her into; she was ALWAYS in my houseplants!

My sisters, who are identical twins, had a language of their own when they were babies. I wasn't around, so don't remember, but have head one of their words was "gah-doink". Don't know what it meant.

other pet names: Wrinkles, Shu Montu, Heyokah, Shadowfax (she also gets called eye-shadow), Kazell, Kaysha, Sasheen, etc., etc.

kat

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Sheye
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 10:25 AM

Skysk - the abreviation of "excuse me please"

and

bazoinka - term of endearment, similar to goofball.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 11:23 AM

Fun! I think a lot of made-up names come from families, especially the mouths of young children. We have a whole vocabulary of weird words and for the life of me I can't think of any examples right now! Oh! "vooshter" for the salad spinner that goes "voosht" when you pull the string. Pretty lame, but it's the best I can do on short notice. I'll come up with some better ones in due time.
Allison

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: ANNA
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 11:59 AM

Someone sent these to me and this thread made think of these and though their new definitions for old word instead of new words, I think they might fit here.

The following definitions are from the Washington Post Style Invitational (a weekly contest for readers). The idea of this one is simply to redefine words from the dictionary - no added or changed letters.

Abdicate - v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

Carcinoma - n. A valley in California, notable for its heavy smog.

Esplanade - v., to attempt an explanation while drunk.

Willy-nilly - adj., impotent.

Flabbergasted - adj., appalled over how much weight you have gained.

Negligent - adj., describes a condition in which you absent-mindedly answer the door in your nightie.

Lymph - v. To walk with a lisp.

Gargoyle-n., an olive-flavored mouthwash.

Bustard - n., a very rude Metrobus driver.

Coffee - n., a person who is coughed upon.

Flatulence - n., the emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

Balderdash - n., a rapidly receding hairline.

Semantics - n., pranks conducted by young men studying for the priesthood, including such things as gluing the pages of the priest's prayer book together just before vespers.

Rectitude - n., the formal, dignified demeanor assumed by a proctologist immediately before he examines you.

Marionettes - n., residents of Washington D.C. who have been jerked around by the former mayor.

Oyster - n., a person who sprinkles his conversation with Yiddish expressions.

Circumvent - n., the opening in the front of boxer shorts

Enjoy, Anna

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 12:16 PM

My daughter Amoret was convinced that we go to 'madenals'.She was furious when she found out it was not a real word - having been trying to explain to her teacher about where she had been. This is because we went to Womad festival, closely followed by the Bracknell festival (which she pronounced Brackernell). She once thought fireworks were called 'missed-its' (for obvious reasons!) She calls the local discount shop 'the custard shop'. When I asked her why, she explained that the two young brothers that run the shop just remind her of custard. Tragically, I understood exactly what she meant - they are both sandy-haired and for some reason just really do look like custard.

My mother is convinced that people put their cars in multi-coloured starparks. (multi-storey carparks)

We drink Cidra, and watch the smelly-vision. Our van has a wengine (another one of Amoret's)

And there are boogaloogas in our bath sometimes (little fluffy scummy bits).

Kris

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: campfire
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 01:52 PM

A litle boy near and dear to me calls my computer the "pacuder" and its kindof stuck. A different little friend, when visiting his father overnight, slept in the trundle bed that pulled out from under his Dad's. "Trundle" not meaning anything to a five-year old, he understandably thought it was a "turtle bed" - and so it is.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Bert
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 01:54 PM

And the new VW is called a 'Bugly'

Bert.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Barbara
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 02:36 PM

Bert, that's called "Bugly", not "a" Bugly.
From the daughter when she was younger:
fuzzy water (carbonated or fast flowing, like into the tub)
Garoana (granola or gorilla, the name of her stuffed one)
win'shiel'pers (one sylable too many)
computadora
and from a friend:
dead food store - (Canned Foods and the like that sell discontinued brands and styles)
And in my family we always call a present you give someone else that is really for yourself, a "football". It derives from the time my father and his two brothers saved up and gave my grandmother a football for her birthday. (Actually, they'd overheard her telling a friend she wanted a "fruitbowl", and misheard her; "fruitbowl" not being in the forefront of a 12 yr old boy's mind the way "football" is.)
Blessings,

Barbara

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Cara
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 05:40 PM

Apologizing in advance, we call Michigan "Militiagan"

Isn't "computadora" an actual word in Spanish?

My little cousin called nail polish "poll nailish" and it stuck. As children we got away with repeating mu dad when he said that our whole fam-damily was bass-ackwards.

We also say, when other people are impatient waiting for us, that they're "walking backwards". I've no idea why.

Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did wyre and gimbol...

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 05:53 PM

I never thought this would bring this many responses! Great stuff folks. Barbara's story reminds me of my 77 year old mother. One recent Christmas she didn't have a clue as to what to get me so she searched and searched for a Monkey Clock. She thought she had heard me talking about how beutiful they were. Well, she was a wee bit addled. I had been talking about an antique GingerBread Clock (that sounded strange to me too first time I heard it). Hey Kat, glad you liked my word. Thank you. P.S. Luckily Mom didn't find any clocks made in the form of a monkey (I would have had to keep it on display). Instead I got a very nice mantel clock from her. Happy ending.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Alice
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 06:08 PM

I haven't heard "famdamily" since I was a kid. Reminds me of home.

The only two I could think of are names for discount stores (why is it common to rename stores with your own word?)

We call K-Mart, Came-Apart

and Gibson's, Gib-Junk.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 06:15 PM

hey! I worked at a Gibson, in another incarnation! My son called Taco Bell, Taco Hell, because he had to work there. My brother called Holyoke, MA, Holysmokes and we never pronounced Groton CT like it supposed to as in Grawtun. we always tried to croak it like a frog, so it came out Grrrotn, sorta.

The local Target store has a little bit better stuff than walmart, whcih we call Walsmart, so those of us who are a cut above call give it a French sound by calling it Tar shay.

I know there are more family one, just gone blank; no on cue clues!

kat

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 07:11 PM

I went to a Prep school named High Mowing School in Wilton New Hampshire {The name came from the fact that the school had been a farm on top of a hill}. WE sent a letter there as follows ........John Dow... Hide Molting School... Wilting...Nude Hampsters.. Later I sent a second to John Dow.... Hide Molting School ...Willing.. Nude Hampsters .They both arived fine........My daughter did not see TV so had no back ground to McDonalds but her first words were "Yellow Store ! Yellow Store!" spocken at high desables pointing out the window of the car at those lovely archs...GO figure...My three year old calls a Helacopter a hopper-plane or Hopping-plane .......All my best to everyone Guy...........`````````````....

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Twilight
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 10:17 PM

My baby brother (he's twenty six now and would kill me if he saw this : )) used to pronuonce the letter 'W' as woubble-you, a helicopter became a humflicopter and spaghetti was bassketti.

There was also the child who every night religiously reeled of 'Gentle Jesus meek and mild' and whenever he got to the bit 'pity my simplicity' he always wondered why we should pity mice in particular, and where exactly *was* Plicity...

Vibeke :)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Cuilionn
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 11:27 PM

Ma sister is disabled an' cannae speak muckle, but she hears verra weel. When she wis wee, she usit tae try an' get her ideas across wi' a combination o' sign language an' partial sounds an' whate'er else she cuid come up wi'. She's 21 year auld, th' noo, an' still maistly non-verbal, but an excellent poet, wi' an acute sense o' th' power an' beauty o' language.

When she wis a wee bairn, tryin' tae let us ken what she wantit aroond th' hoose, she stairtit pointin' tae her elbow an' then luikin' at us wi' a hopefu' expression. We cuidnae unnerstand ava'. Finally, ane day, she pointit tae her elbow, then grabbit ma hand an' marchit me intae th' kitchen. She then pointit imperiously at th' fridge.

I openit th' door o' th' fridge, an' she luikit up at me, pointit tae her elbow, an' then pointit meaningfully at th' jar o' applesauce on th' top shelf. She'd been hopin' we'd figger oot th' pun... We've referrit tae that particular substance as "Elbowsauce" e'er since!!!

--Cuilionn

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Big Mick
Date: 27 Apr 99 - 11:43 PM

When my oldest daughter, Cass who is now 23, was a darling three year old she referred to ketchup as cowpoose. It has been that ever since, and everyone in the family still calls it that.

Mick

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: ddw in windsor
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 01:07 AM

Years ago my sister and her husband lived in Hickory, NC and there son, Criss, used to play with a little boy next door who had a speech impediment -- an "F" substitution for anything that started with a consonent plus and R. Nobody thought too much of it -- just something a three-year-old would grow out of -- when he called my nephew "Fiss," but I'm told it caused quite a stir when the pastor from their church stopped by and Sonny began explaining to him how angry his mother was when his dad brought home his new truck.

True story? I'm not sure, because my brother-in-law was pretty good at dreaming up tales like that, but Sonny really did call Criss "Fiss" -- that I heard....

Anna... Great list.

cheers, ddw

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 01:52 AM

Cuilionn, I love tae storie lass, wae ya believe there aer siml'r accents hae in me hielands? Loved yer tale. Mick, even though I love ketchup I am more that willing to accept Kowpoose as it's offical name. I would have named it Rolaidsstuff but kowpoose is better. Next time I'm in Burger Death I'll tell them " Hold the Kowpoose, Hold the lettuce, only your burgers upset us" DDW, this was a lark and I must confess it is much more fun than my futile gas boycott joke. Loved your story. Once as a young janitor our city was celebrating it's 150 birthday so they made it an impromtu law that it was illegal to shave. I was 14, at my first job. My boss was in his middle 40's and was growing his first beard to join the civic spirit. In front of him his son ask how I thought his beard looked. My brain said one thing, my mouth another. I meant to say it didn't look like a fake....fill in the rest. Lucky for me, Roger had a sense of humor. We laughed about the gaff all summer but I still get embarrassed to this day when I think about the look on his face when I first said it.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Craig
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 02:10 AM

Where I live we used to have a couple of newspapers that are now defunct. One was The Vista Press which we would call The Vicious Press and the other one was the Coast Dispatch which became the Coast Disgrace.

Craig

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 04:00 AM

Ah, the one I grew up with is still in existense. Instead of the Daily Sentinel, we called the Daily Senile.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Barbara
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 04:14 AM

Newspapers always catch it, don't they? We have one called the Statesman Journal (Urinal) and another the News Register (Resister). That second one is pretty accurate, and the first is a Gannett McPaper, so call it what you like.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 05:19 AM

And poor old Vernal, Utah gets called Venereal.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: KingBrilliant
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 06:26 AM

My dear mother sends parcels via postal farce (parcel force actually). My Japanese nephews can't pronounce 'Amoret', and laughed like drains because it sounds exactly like Omlette to them.

Crying at thing which are sad or particularly moving is called 'Daddy disease' - because our strong silent type head of the house is apt to get very wet around the eyes when watching tear-jerking TV or listening to favourite songs.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Banjer
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 06:46 AM

Having just read and caught up to this thread I can draw naught but a blank right now. The only thing that does come to mind readily is the more descriptive term I use for butterflies, FLUTTERBYES. I will write down anything that comes to me and post here later. This IS fun...

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Alice
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 09:47 AM

Newspapers, ah yes, easy to poke fun at, just like the discount stores. People call our daily paper, the Bozeman Chronicle, the Bozeman Comical. And I thought I made up "flutterbies" when I was little!

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 10:10 AM

One of our local papers is " the community common" or as I call it " the community communist". The Portsmouth Daily times just rates "Rag". I think we could start a different thread about papers. We all have some pretty solid thoughts on those eh?

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Cara
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 10:18 AM

Our paper, The Newark Advocate, was the Aggravate. Taco Bell was Toxic Hell, and I want credit for inventing the frenchification of Tar-zhet please Kat!

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Roger the zimmer
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 11:11 AM

My late mother bought a shiny top in what she described (in company)as "gold durex" (lurex). She never understood why my dad & I had hankies stuffed in our mouths to suppress giggles. (note to Americans like calling it Trojan, didn't mean to resurrect condom theme!)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Steve Parkes
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 12:35 PM

One of my mother's favorite tunes is "Peanut Bender"!

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: annamill
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 01:01 PM

I had to change my name because when I became a member there already was an "anna". I think it was me.

Well, anyway.. Here in NY we call Chemical Bank, Comical Bank. My friend Dan, calls OfficeMax, OrficeMax and

sometimes I refer to FORD product as "Fix Or Repair Daily". That ones probably old.

When my son, James, was 3 or so, we had a cat named Pywacket from Bell, Book and Candle. One day, when I served him Apple Pie and told him to eat his pie, he was very confused as he looked down in puzzlement at poor Py.

Thank you, ddw, glad you liked them. I thought they were cute too.

This is fun! Anna

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: sharon
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 01:07 PM

My granddaughter loves it when I mow the grass, because she likes to go walk in the "bunnygrass"......her word for the new mown grass.

My daughter, many years ago, said I should learn how to make "old rotten potatoes" like they have at school (au gratin)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Cara
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 02:04 PM

My cousin Taylor insists that the words to that Beatles song are "Strawberry fields for rabbits". And so now they are, within the fam.

Speaking of mangled lyrics...

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 06:28 PM

mangled lyrics.....how bout, all the head lice on the highway (some people actually seem to hear this in the song) for head lights on the highway. I started thinking about my original thread idea here and realized that I had forgot one of my favorite self created words. Having once cussed like a drunken sailor it finally dawned on me in my later years that it is sometimes impolite (!!!!!!). I changed my speech to include "Balderdash and Poppycock to substitute for some of them but it just didn't fill all the void. One day I was helping my daughter draw pictures when my crayola broke, hence now my favorite expletive "Crapola".

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Matthew B.
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 06:59 PM

Back to the subject of alternate names (as opposed to endearing malaprops by children and others), let me try to make some up right now:

Juice strainer (my teeth) Spot catcher (my tie) Sunglass holders (my ears) Mobile home (my briefcase) Face warmers (my cats) Trouble maker (my... oops, forget that one)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 28 Apr 99 - 08:40 PM

Matt, I didn't mention williewong did I? It's been my lawyer's favorite name that I invented. He wants me to go into publishing.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Matthew B.
Date: 29 Apr 99 - 07:12 PM

Tucker -

Williwong is recognizable because it's a composite of two pre-existing nicknames. How about some more?

Anonymizer (sunglasses)
Auto-nag (alarm clock)
Anti-Nag (snooze alarm)
Rumor catchers (ears)
Rumor starters (eyes)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 29 Apr 99 - 08:26 PM

I live in a very pritty, old new england town where zoning is very strick to hold onto the feel of traditional archuecture and the rest of it.I have heard some irratable types call the historical so."the Histarical So.".......................

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Alice
Date: 29 Apr 99 - 09:09 PM

Hey, we call the historical point signs on the highway "hysterical points"... what a co-inkadink!!

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Barbara
Date: 29 Apr 99 - 09:26 PM

And the folks in the Hysterical Society have an Edifice Complex?

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Margo
Date: 29 Apr 99 - 09:49 PM

Jack used to work for Safeway grocery store, of course he calls it "Slaveway". Shakespeare is "Willy the Shake".

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 29 Apr 99 - 09:53 PM

Oh, you guys are good!!! guy, living in New England inspired one of my more humorous editorial, called the "NO Relief Zone". It's about the fact that there are no public facilities from the border of RI, through to Groton, CT, for the casual traveller who chooses not to go into an eatery and partake for the privilege of using the resident potty. Mystic had a great debate about putting some in downtown and never could get together on it, partly due to aesthetics. Last time I was there, it was still potty-less. In my ed. I suggested giant litter boxes behind strategically places shrubs, as young men were constantly using my backyard to pee in, when visiting the next door minimart! If you'd like copy, I'd be happy to email it to you. Hell, its been published, Maybe some day I'll submit it to Yankee Mag!

Out here, any sagebrush is happy to oblige, but they still put in these wonderfully, environmentally friendly "rest stops", but that's just cause there's so few towns.

katlaughing

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:04 AM

Hey Kat, you brought up a really good point. Everyone is out for the tourist dollars but what's a tourist to do when he/she has to go? Lord knows we all hate those portapottys. When I am in a strange but facinating town I love to walk around and take in the sights'n things. Eventually though nature calls. What's a person to do? In a way I can't blame communities for not putting up more facilities. For some reason bathrooms (W/C's) are targets for vandals and would be writers. It would be nice though if places with a lot of tourist draw had a place to stop. Ok, to the topic/thread maybe a "needapee"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 06:38 AM

Well, I have to say, Tucker, I never wrote on the darn things, even being a would-be writer!:-)

And, you can't tell it from the above, but I DO know how to spell and use good grammar. Sorry, everybody, for all the mistakes, but I get impatient and miss the spontaneous outburst of *ahem* brilliance, if I go out to the WP then bring it back in here!

katlaughing and casting her spell....checker, NOT!

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Margo
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:23 AM

Kat,

I don't care about typos, but this

". I suggested ginat litter boxes behind strategically places shrubs, as young men we constantly using my backyard to pee in, when visitng the nextdoor minimart! "

had me wondering for a second if you were a guy. I thought, Kathleen? Naaaaaah.

Margie

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:39 AM

Margie, yer right, of course, Kathleen IS a gyrl's name and I own up to it most o'the time, tho I was a 'tomboy"

Here's what shoulda been:"I suggested giant litter boxes behind strategically placed shrubs, as young men were constantly using my backyard to pee in, when visitng the nextdoor minimart! "

It was a hoot! One time when my youngest was brand new and I'd just gotten her to sleep, we lived in a little house behind a bigger one. The alley ran right by our garage. Jr. High boys used to come stand between my house & garage and carry on. Well, one day they went too far. As I said, I'd just gotten her to sleep and I was GOING to take a nap! I heard these two out there and one of them started to urinate! I got up, picked up my now ex's huge old black powder UNLOADED pistol, opened up the window shade and told them they better put it back in their pants and never try that again! I have NEVER seen anybody take off so fast like a jackrabbit! And, they never did come back; my yard was "pee-free"!

kat

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:54 AM

Which reminds me, my same friend who calls Canned Foods stores Deadfood store, when we're traveling together, asks to stop at a "Peezit".

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Jerry Friedman
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 02:42 PM

On this subject, friends of mine used to say, "I have to zim" when they needed to relieve nature. From "zimmer", from mispronounced (and incorrect?) German "Frauenzimmer", meaning "ladies' room". Take that, Roger!

One of those friends pronounced "Target" in French 15 years ago. You might not have been the only person to invent it, Cara.

Speaking of which, "flutterby" is so common that I was told as a child it's the origin of "butterfly". (It's not.) "Willie the Shakes" is in a Joni Mitchell song, I forget which. I don't know whether she invented it. "Fix Or Repair Daily" is indeed old, and so is "Fix It Again, Tony".

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: John Wood
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:12 PM

A friend of mine was standing in front of the mirror fixing her face,when her young son asked ``Mummy,why do you use fakeup ?´´

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Allan C.
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 03:25 PM

SNARF - is what I call aerosol whipped cream.
"W" SAUCE - is what I call the steak sauce because I got tired of arguing about how to pronounce it.
RADA FRADA FORDA SEEDIS SAW - I had a friend years ago who taught me this. It makes an excellent phrase of many uses. Said loudly, it can make swearing nearly obsolete. But my friend's favorite thing to do was to whisper it urgently into someone's ear and wait for a reaction!
RATTSHMINKLES! - is another favorite pseudo-swearword.
FRAMUS - the name given to any unidentified mechanical part.
BERMIS - the name given to any body part for which a name is not known or remembered. BLOP - a measurement of anything having the consistency of mayonnaise - not unlike a dollop

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 04:34 PM

NOT EXACTLY A NAME FOR SOMETHING, RATHER AN EXPRESSION I USE WHEN I LOSE SOMETHING (which is quite often due to being completely disorganized). Rather than turning the air blue when something is lost I usually shout "LOST, GONE FOREVER, GONE THE WAY OF THE GREAT GUANO BIRD". I developed this expression when the kids were around. A few weeks ago I went over to our daughters house and as I walked across the porch I heard her shouting ~ You guessed it "LOST, GONE FOREVER, GONE THE WAY OF THE GREAT GUANO BIRD".

CAP'T BOB

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 04:50 PM

Oh, Cara, but you see, mon cher, I have the last name to prove it: LaFrance! Instruments at forty paces? I warn you, I wield a wicked fiddle bow!**Big Grin**

Actually, I didn't hear it until about 6 years ago when I moved back to here and my gyrlfriend brought up going there one day.

We had an orange cat who topped the scales at 18-20lbs, depending on how much he ate that day. His name was Hawkeye (the kid's loved MASH) and he was a gentle giant. Our favourite nickname for him was "Lil' Kittl'" which he loved. My gyrlfriend added the letters "een" to the end of her cats' names, so we did, too. Now my Kelpie (black with gold shot through her beauteous coat)comes to Kelpeen; she loves the singsongy way it rolls out.

My gyrls and I used to try to figure out words to go with the three letters on people's license plates in CT. One day we saw one that looked like PKU, instead of using the "f" word, from then on we said "Puck U"!

There is a flying horse or something in a children's book series which is called Flutterby. Has anyone ever seent eh kid's book called "CDB", as in "See the bee"? The whole book is like that, quite entertaining.

We went to a high school variety show where a woman read the story of Cinderella, but the first letter of various words was always switched around. Ever after, we teased our dog about being a "prandsome hince"; that progressed to my mom being Harry Mudson; me being Lat KaFrance...well...you get the idea. It's a lot of fun; try it!

latkaughing

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Barbara
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 04:55 PM

The humor writer Patrick McMannis calls people "elbows" as in "Sometimes my friend Retch can be a real elbow."
Fake swearing from Walt Kelly (creator of Pogo for those of you old enough to know better) "Razzlefratz, blagdrabit, RAlph!"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Bert
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 05:06 PM

Uh Oh! now we're onto pseudo swear words. We used to use "metamorphosing polliwog"

Bert.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 30 Apr 99 - 11:11 PM

When my kids were wee I invented a monster named Gordy to keep them from the basement. I did this by making a pretense of going into the basement for something and then making sounds ( my best theactrics(?) of the monster attacking me. It worked too well. My poor basement is known city wide as the home of Gordy. My stories to my children and nephews are now local folklore. Such is language. Nothing is so lasting as to hear a tale you made up retold by a young adult to his/her child embellished with their own ideas. Poor Gordy was never really mean, and my children knew it. He and Puff are to this day docile dragons, still magic.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: ShimmrBlu
Date: 01 May 99 - 02:33 AM

One time my friend was trying to sleep and she kept getting woken up by another friend calling over and over. Finally she yelled into the phone, "Kevin, I was aspleet!!!"

Another time I was telling someone about a dream I had over the phone and I said, "It was such a fierd weeling!"

A friend's mom teaches her kids to call it "traf"... (read it backwards...)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 99 - 08:08 AM

My youngest daughter, now 21, has always mixed up certain words, with a very slight dyslexia, we thing. Anyway, when working at the stables, she always used a "forkpitch" or, sometimes, a "porkfitch" to clean out the old straw.

When she was 7 yrs old, after watching the movie, "Beckett", and seeing his his effigy near the end, she asked,"What did they do? Did they pour cement all over him?"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Alice
Date: 01 May 99 - 09:18 AM

the term for your hair when it is all messed up after sleeping (especially toddlers after their nap)= pillow perm.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 01 May 99 - 07:51 PM

AT one point while visiting my pottery teacher{an elderly woman} in New Hampshire I made the small joke that I was so bald I was "fallicly impered" but I think I misspronounced it alittle......She just looked at me with out cracking a smile and said "I'm so sorry"......Golly words can get one in such hot water,{espeicially when you can't spell.} I need a spell-check implant....Cheers Guy~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 01 May 99 - 09:14 PM

Guy,just enjoy those times when you screw up and no one knows it. Like playing Dixie when it should be the Star Spangled Banner, smile, sing, laugh and giggle all the way home

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: ShimmrBlu
Date: 01 May 99 - 09:35 PM

Just the other day I was trying to make a list of flower names and my friend described one that she couldn't remember the name for and I said, "Oh! Drangonsnap!!"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 01 May 99 - 11:17 PM

I finally remembered one that my son used to use to scare his little sisters. Years ago, he was a great fan of Dr. Who, I wasn't, but apparently there was some sort of creature they all knew from the show, called the Bumanji.

Anyway whenever we would go through the automatic carwash and the long thick strips of fabric would begin to sway and shimmy their way towards the windshield, Colin would tell his sisters it was the Bumanji coming to get them. We still joke about it whenever we get the cars washed.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Banjer
Date: 01 May 99 - 11:21 PM

Another thread, the one about Jack Mostly Folk changing his moniker to Mudjack and Katlaughing's response just reminded me of a term that has been used at the shop for some time now. When someone has a need to reach higher than physicaly possible just standing on his feet he will call to someone nearby "Bring me an assjack" and will usually receive anything from a crate to a ladder depending on his need.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Margo
Date: 02 May 99 - 06:43 PM

That's funny Banjer. My husband's name is Jack, and I have a lot of fun with it. Gosh, there's Jack sh*t, Jack of all trades, Jackass, and of course, I asked Jack. (You've gotta say that last one out loud.) Marg

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 02 May 99 - 06:57 PM

Good Lord! What a Thread. Anyone got a name for the piece of cardboard or carpet you use when you are kneeling doing garden work? just a thought, I haven't heard it named yet.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Alice
Date: 03 May 99 - 10:37 AM

..ummm... how about 'prayer mat', Tucker?

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 03 May 99 - 05:59 PM

That works Alice. Thanks

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: dan
Date: 03 May 99 - 06:49 PM

Great thread. We used to have a Dodge Ram we called "the goat." A movie theatre is the "walk-in," one for the road a "roady," a budweiser a "red snapper," and, thanks to my little girl, what you look behind you in is a "ruvier mirror."

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Allan C.
Date: 04 May 99 - 10:07 AM

Kids have a way of naming their worlds. Many kids I have known were unable to pronounce "spaghetti" and so it came out BUSKETTI more often than not. My younger daughter, now nearly 15, used to call the midnight bandits RACCAHOONS.

When I was working as a nurse's aide, we had a patient who was aphasic (or had some other such problem with her ability to communicate). She was only capable of producing one set of sounds, "DEEDILA-MAIDILA" which she used conversationally while she pantomimed. For quite some time after she was discharged, whenever one of us could not think of the right word for something, we would substitute with DEEDILA-MAIDILA. I still use it from time to time. But of course, people look at me oddly.

My high school choir director urged us to substitute "WATERMELON" for any forgotten lyrics. He swore that nobody would ever notice. To my knowledge, nobody ever did.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: The_one_and_only_Dai
Date: 04 May 99 - 10:41 AM

Tucker - it's called a kneeling mat. Or a hassock.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Tucker
Date: 05 May 99 - 04:39 AM

Thank you Dai

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Allan C.
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 12:57 AM

I saw the brand name, "Framus" in a thread about banjos and had to chuckle. That is a word I've often used as a replacement word for various items - some imaginary. "I think I know what is wrong with your car - you probably have a broken framus." Or "If I only had a framus I could be finished with this much sooner." In such a context, the "a" usually has a sound such as the one in the word, "maybe".

You can see this and a few others in my posts above.

I started to create a new thread on the subject of replacement words but then remembered this old thread. Please add your own mini-dictionary of terms.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 01:13 AM

This has been a hoot to re-read, Allan! Thanks!

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:37 AM

Our afternoon tabloid paper is called the Telecrap (cos it is, even tho the proprietors call it the Daily Telegraph).

And at work at end of day we balance the till going thru a rigglymarole - first leave the shop & get the key from the manager's desk, then go into the workroom & open the locked filing cabinet to get the safe key (fortunately it's sitting in a cash box that has lost it's key yonks ago), then back to the shop, run the end of day processes, finally open the safe & put the money & reports away, then put the keys back. Sometimes the safe needs to be opened first as the person who opened up has conscientiously locked the empty canvas money sack with it's little plastic coin bags in the safe.

sandra

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:46 AM

Back in Canton, Ohio you could subscribe to the "Canton Repository" or, as we called it, the "Canton Suppository."

We've also subscribed or read the "Quincy Whirled Pig" (Herald-Whig), the
Akron "Bacon Journey" (Beacon-Journal), the Cleveland "Dane Peeler" (Plain Dealer), the Geauga "Whine Bleeder" (Times-Leader), the South Bend "Tribute" (Tribune), and "Elkhartiya Pravda" (Elkhart Truth).

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 12:42 PM

Have you ever noticed how many everyday things in modern life are usually called by letters, not names? TV, VCR, DVD, CD, ATM, ATV, SUV—am I missing any?

I think this trend is deplorable, and we ought to squelch it right away, before our language becomes an alphabet soup. We ought to invent short, convenient, real words for those things, not abbreviations. I approve of the British practice of calling the television a "telly" for example. And, don't Brits call the VCR a "video," or is it the videocassette that is called a "video"?

I propose that we start calling CDs "records" since that word is under-used right now. Sure, people now only use "record" when they're talking about vinyl, but I remember when long-playing records were called LPs, to distinguish them from 45s and 78s. (I guess it was too cumbersome to call them thirty-three-and-a-thirds.) When 45s and 78s fell into relative disuse, people dropped the term LP and started calling them records. Now it seems logical to do the same thing with CDs. After all, etymologically, "record" only means something that is recorded. The medium is irrelevant. There is no reason a CD shouldn't be called a record.

In Minnesota, it is common to call the ATM a "cash machine." When visiting St. Louis, I was surprised that a store clerk didn't know what I meant by "cash machine," but I hope the term spreads. I think "cash machine" got started as a shortening of "Instant Cash machine." Instant Cash was the first brand of ATM that appeared in Minnesota.

Whoever thought of calling a computer mouse a "mouse" was brilliant. I'm sure glad it's not called a PCID—a point-and-click input device—or whatever the alternative was.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Amos
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 02:24 PM

Well, we oughta call them SUVs "carucks", I recon -- an obvious joining of cars and trucks. We call CDs coasters, expecially wqhen they fail in recording, since that's all they're good for!

A

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 02:44 PM

Englehardt made the first computer mouse way back in 1964. It's come a long, long way since then.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Rapparee
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 02:45 PM

Sorry, I meant Englebart.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 03:03 PM

When my daughter was little, kitchen cupboards were "covereds," and still are, as there is a certain logic there.

But my grandma was the family champion: her favourite flowers were the Dagwood and the Philadelphium.

Favourite books: How to Kill a Mockingbird and The Man in the Grey Flannels.

Favourite song: Seventy-five Trombones.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 04:16 PM

somehow missed this back in '99!

a friend used to call things with no particular nomenclature .."gizmachos"...as in "hand me that gizmacho over there"

my wife's family had a word for those dishes you cook with lots of leftovers..."ooblek"...it has since come to refer also to most of the class of things like 'Hamburger helper' and such ...especially if the final result has been changed and added to until it barely resembles the original. (this does NOT include soups & stews that are liquid based..only the stuff in a skillet that does not pour. How's that for precision?)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 04:19 PM

oh, yeah...and my young cousin, at age 4, managed to translate "refrigerator" into "batumfritter", much to the amusement of the family for decades since...

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: wysiwyg
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 08:13 PM

Band Name: Almost Framus

~S~

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Snuffy
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 09:20 PM

When she was small my daughter used to make up sensible alternatives for words she didn't know, so:

Nettles became "stingleaves"
A fly-swatter was a "batterbee"
A ladle was a "bean getter"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Bill D
Date: 05 Jul 03 - 10:46 PM

how about 'furrin' langwige' speakers trying to cope.....

The Saturday Evening Post used to have semi-regular humor pieces making fun of garbled language...including Heinrich Schnibble..(who was once going to "take der bangenspitzer and geschplatten der schnortenzoomers" that were scaring his cows..)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Ely
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 11:11 AM

I'm not even sure how to spell this, but when my brother and I were too wiggly as children, our parents told us not to be so "rootchy" (rutchy? Same "oo" sound as "book"). When we were stubborn, they borrowed from Richard Scarry and told us not to be "pig-won'ts".

My 1986 Nissan station wagon was the "gerbil", presumably because it was tan and had white license-plate "buck teeth".

Bill D--we once had a dog named Ootek, who had many nicknames, one of which was "Ooblek". What an awful thought! (On the other hand, he was also called Oozie).

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Armen Tanzerian
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 11:54 AM

All dogs are "Poogie" (soft G), or "Poogie-boy" until formally introduced. Cats are "pusser-catter".

Small children are "squonkers".

Such devices as the Intelli-Touch or Korg are "tunerators".

And, as a corollary, exceptionally dorky people are said to have their "weenerators turned all the way up" or "weenerators on full".




Armen "Day-dee-zweet" Tanzerian

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Ely
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 04:12 PM

Extremely dorky people were "zone-dweebies" when I was in middle school. I have absolutely no idea where we came up with that one.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 04:51 PM

"Oobleck" is a fantastic name that originated with Dr. Seuss. His earlier books were not the famous rhyming ones but prose tales with his hallmark goofiness and sketches. In "Bartholomew and the Oobleck" the king is fed up with the usual weather, rain, sun, snow, and fog, and commands his wizards to make something new come down from his sky. They come up with oobleck which sticks to everything, and the page boy Bartholomew has to find a way to get rid of it all.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 04:57 PM

Our kids when small were "bobbins" from the movie "Willow."
My sister-in-law says that when you walk into a room and forget why you came, you have "destinesia."
Umbrellas are "underbloats."
We sing "Aardvark carols" as in "Aardvark herald angels sing..."
When my nephew was small, dust bunnies became "Arnamus" and we never knew why, nor why he was frightened of them.
My younger daughter spoke of fastening "beat belts", her "belbow", and my personal favorite, "belly beans."

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 05:05 PM

We also maintain an assortment of words that I assumed were usual, until I used them outside the family, and then thought they were family terms, growing up in Oklahoma, with all our relatives in Kansas, but as an adult I have found them in OED as "archaic Scottish" terms. Go figure. (My father's mother's family was Scot and I assume they somehow held on.)
Grouse: to complain verbally; lower pitched than whining but tends to go on. (He keeps grousing about his taxes.)
Faunch: to express dissatisfaction physically as well as verbally; more than grousing, but short of tantrum; likely to involve eyerolling, headshaking, putting feet down harder than necessary, possibly door slamming. (He is faunching over the umpire's call.)
We also call portapotties "Donnikers" which I had understood is what carnival folk call them, but I recently heard a Scot friend refer to the "donnies" at a festival.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 05:12 PM

My younger son was frightened of BOMSTERS.
There are three types of bomsters.
One type has big claws, and hisses and turns red when plunged into boiling water.
One type wears suits and carries machine guns and talks oddly.
One type lives under your bed and is likely to bite your feet off if you get out of bed in the middle of the night.
All bomsters, all scary.

Somehow the planes that drop things that explode, and the little furry critters that gnaw everything, escaped both the term and the fear.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 09:27 PM

OK, finally I'll try to get into the spirit of this thread. When my son was small, he watched Sesame Street, and he was impressed by Bert's paper clip collection. He couldn't pronounce "paper clip collection"--it came out "paper cliption." Also, he wasn't clear on the distinction between the collection and the individual paper clips. So the whole family adopted "paper cliption" as the term for paper clip.

The clerk at the local liquor store used to give my son a lollipop whenever he accompanied us there. So we started calling the liquor store "the lollipop shop." At least my son always understood where we were going!

Around Minnesota, we have a few pet names for our local institutions. Target Stores, which began here and have their headquarters here, is frequently given a fake French pronunciation: Tar-zhay. It sounds so much more upscale to say you bought something at Tarzhay.

The Minnesota Twins are called the Twinks when they're not doing well. Likewise, the Vikings are sometimes called the Vi-queens. The Star-Tribune is often called the Strib. Heileman's Special Export, a brand of beer that comes in a green bottle, and seems to be a little stronger than other beers, has long been called "Green Death." I don't know why it's the only brand of beer that has an unofficial nickname. The company has been trying to get us to call it Special Ex.

My college roommate was a strict Baptist who never swore. But he loved saying, "Got dandruff! Some of it itches!" or "Cheese and crackers got all muddy!"

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Rapparee
Date: 06 Jul 03 - 10:40 PM

One niece loved "acamony and shees." This has gone through several permutations, including Acrimony and Sneeze and Matrimony and Sleeze. She'll graduate from college next Spring and head off to microbiology grad school; she's a bit embarassed when we offer her Antimony and Freeze or some other, created on the spot, variation.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,celtaddict
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 01:52 AM

My college daughter doesn't swear by saying, "Cheese and rice!"
A fellow I dated in school muttered "dadblasted fratterap" which does sound pretty awful.
We were pretty strict about no name calling, but that led to some creative usage: He is such a mortal crouton. How can you act like such a blithering diphthong?
When the same daughter was younger, and would become really annoyed with one of her big brothers or with irresponsible skiers on the slopes, she would pronounce them, "You bumbyflako!" which is obviously a serious insult from a three year old.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Rapparee
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 09:06 AM

I've been known to exclaim, "Gracious snakes!" Brings to mind visions of serpents in top hats, spats, and canes.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Sam L
Date: 07 Jul 03 - 10:03 AM

There's a "thingy" thread above y'all might lend your talents to.

We used to have a chronology of kid evolution worked out, but I can't remember all of them at once. They begin in the belly as Peaseblossoms. Evolve into Peanuts. Tater-heads. Dirndles. Poindexters. I can't remember the rest, but they come to mind when I see them.

   Umbrellas are brumbellos. The schmoozing you abstain from is called Swashalizing, like at certain art-gallery openings, attended by perverted Artophiles. Sarts is the brand-name of an existential breath-mint. "Abstaining" from sex isn't a word I made up, but I like it. Abstain. As in "I'm afraid I must recuse myself from these proceedings, due to a conflict of interest".

   My daughter used to say Impointment. Serious things were impointment, or you might have an impointment.
   
Blunstenence is a perceivable lack of infinite ramifications. A thing that has nothing to do with the issue at hand or with anything else is Blunstenent.

    Steve Miller's "Pompatus" of Love was a corruption of the "Puppetudes" of love in the Duke of Earl, I heard recently from an interview with his keyboardist.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 09:38 AM

I have a unique instrument - a Guitar neck attached to an enamelled steel hospital bedpan that I got off E-bay a while ago.

(Sounds a bit tinny - been thinking of setting it up Nashville style.)

So what should it be called? :-) (nott too rude please!)

Robin

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Uncle_DaveO
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 01:23 PM

A Butt-ar?

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 01:32 PM

Bettpfannair

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: PageOfCups
Date: 09 Sep 03 - 03:03 PM

Random memories dredged up by this thread:

Places:
    The Post Awful
    Radio Shack-up (yesterday's technology at tomorrow's prices)
    Pizza Slut

Newspapers:
    Onion-Trib (Union Tribune)
    The Smellay Times (L.A. Times)
    The Crimes (Times)
    The Outdate (the Update)

Things:
    Collyrobbles (childhood term for brussels sprouts)
    Schmedlap (an indeterminate quantity, similar to but larger than a dollop)

Cussing substitutes:
    Sunday obituary!!!
    and my favorite: Fornicate with waterfowl!

And to show that I came by this language-warping honestly, when I was in junior high, I helped a local newspaper columnist write a column on "fractured French". Examples:
    Pas de deux == I do not care to eat chicken.
    Dans le tren == "C'mon baby, do the locomotion with me"

My suggestion for the guitar-necked bedpan? The Pee-ano.

PoC

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,Jim, Sheffield, UK - http://www.jimbarter.co
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 03:30 PM

What a very amusing discussion!

We have a local shopping centre (mall) called 'Meadowhall' a lot of the locals call it 'Meadowhell'

On a similar note, 'Hollywood' has become 'Hollowwood'

;-)

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,Unusual Person
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 04:20 PM

Do you know what a 'mabice' is? It's that little speck of dirt on the TV, that really annoys you, but you don't remove for months and months and it drives you mad. This is one of mine, feel free to use it. Dates back to 1981.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Sorcha
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 05:43 PM

Plumb Outta--Pamida (Walmart type discount store)
Erk--a word trying to get in edgewise
RV/Caravan--Tin Tent
Belly gaskets or African Roofing shingles--pancakes

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: SINSULL
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 06:02 PM

Hideobilia - Helen Schneyers word for ugly gifts - ugly but not to be disposed of.
The Chinese Marching Band - a threat to misbehaving kitties. It involves the youth in Asia. Think about it.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Joe_F
Date: 14 Sep 06 - 10:51 PM

I have owned three cars in my life. They were named respectively the Baboon, the Fodge, and the Speeding Blintz. You can probably figure out why.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: GUEST,Arnamus Mariko
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 10:25 PM

Arnamus...Arnamus is a Demon...well the Demon of Pain...and this has nothing to do with Religion...it has to do with fact...when a child sees something they don't like 97.106 times out of 100.00 times they name it Arnamus...but I doubt the whole Dust Bunnies thing is true because it's only something that hurts them...unless the child has asthma then it would hurt them. Just wanted to clear that up...

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Nickhere
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 10:48 PM

My mother had so many words of her own invention that I once wrote a small dictionary as a kind of satire. For example, she never used pints or litres. Rather, liquids were measured in 'squarts' 'sups' and 'sqooshes' Washing up liquid was 'squz'

For example "put a good squart of squz in the dishes when you're washing them"

"...and don't forget to skoosh them round" (I suppose the nearest translation would be 'agitate')

Juts in case you think all her words began with 's':

"Shake out your livers and wash off the coshapookas"

(trans: 'get up out of bed, get your circulation going / get some air, empty your bladders & wash the snots out of your nose')

This might be said to lazy children lying-in on a Saturday morning.

There were many, many more. Can't remember all of them these days.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 10:54 PM

wash off the coshapookas

My grandson is going to love that one! Thanks!

He loves it when he sneezes because I tease him about having the Sneezles.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Nickhere
Date: 24 Jan 09 - 10:56 PM

My wife and I come up with the odd neologism from time to time, for example for a while 'to blair' or 'to tell a blair' was cuurency in our house after Tony Blair gave his speech on Saddam and the WMD. For example "don't you know it's naughty to tell blairs?" or "Are you serious or is that a blair?" It had a meaning of more than a lie, more of a cheeky bare-faced lie that knew it was a lie, which was so preposterous yet the teller still expected it to be swallowed hook line and sinker.

One day my wife came up with 'we have too many respensibilties" which she had meant to say was 'expenses' and 'responsibilities' but they got combined in her drive for economy of word.

Another day the word 'irrelephant' popped into my head out of nowhere. It means 'an irrelevant elephant' Now I just have to find an occasion to use it. Still waiting.

Subject: RE: Creating your own name for something
From: Gurney
Date: 25 Jan 09 - 09:30 PM

Not a thing, but a practice..
My father's name for being out on the rantan, the booze, or especially the pull, was 'padgeowling.'
From a tomcat, Padge (Patch) that we once had, and his reponse to a queen calling, or an intruder on his 'patch.'